'She plays different' - Casper Ruud impressed by Ons Jabeur, 'always enjoys' watching Simona Halep

Men’s world No.8 Casper Ruud say while playing in Rome, he was excited to watch some of the women’s tournament, with one player’s performances particularly pleasing him.

“It’s impressive to see Ons (Jabeur). She plays different from many other women," Ruud said on the latest episode of Eurosport's Ruud Talk podcast.

"She throws in a drop shot, has a good touch of the ball and can play fast winners. I was watching a little bit, couple of matches where she played before I would play in Rome”, he said.

Jabeur was beaten in the Italian Open final by world No.1 Iga Swiatek, with Ruud admitting, “As we know, Swiatek she has won 28 matches in a row now, so it’s hard to argue that she maybe is not the player of the month or the year so far.”

Ruud has long been a fan of former world number one, Simona Halep, who he thinks is on the verge of an exciting new period of her game, saying, “Halep has teamed up with (Patrick) Mouratoglou - that could be an interesting relationship to follow. Some years back, when she was on the top of the world, I always enjoyed watching Simona Halep play tennis because I think she builds her points very well. She was very structured. She’s not a big hitter or the most powerful girl but she was number one in the world, winning Grand Slams because she did the right thing."

The 23-year-old Norwegian is currently preparing for the French Open, hoping to go the furthest he’s been at a major. Currently, his run to the fourth round at the Australian Open in 2021 (which was prematurely ended through injury), is his most successful outing at a Grand Slam.

And Ruud also touched on his aims for the tournament, as well as how the emergence of young stars can make him feel old.

“Obviously, I’m putting it as a very high goal and big expectations for this year, so of course I hope I can deliver. It is probably been my main goal this year to do good results there, because it is the Grand Slam where I feel, for now at least, where I have better chances to do well. It is important for me I think, before I am getting old in this circuit.

“I cannot say that yet because I’m only 23, but when you see players like (Carlos) Alcaraz and (Lorenzo) Musetti and all these guys, I start to feel a little bit old. I think it's important for me to have a good Grand Slam result this year to know that, for the future years, I can be able to do the same or even better result”, he said.

Ruud also wants to banish the memories of last year’s trip to the French capital, where he felt he should have performed better.

“Roland-Garros has been in my mind for some weeks already because it’s a tournament where I feel like last year I was a bit unfortunate and was maybe the biggest disappointment, in a way, of my year. Not saying third round is a bad result but it was a very close, and rollercoaster match, against (Alejandro) Davidovich (Fokina) in the third round. The draw had opened a little bit because Dominic (Thiem), he lost. If you look on paper, I suppose I was supposed to play him in the fourth round. But Davidovich made quarter-finals which was maybe one of my bigger goals of the year”, he said.

"I felt like that opportunity slipped out of my hands.

Ruud was beaten in the semi-finals of the Italian Open by Novak Djokovic, and is finishing his French Open preparations at the Geneva Open.

Despite pushing his own expectations, he’s been given reassurances from someone close to home. “My father has reminded me, even though I’ve lost some matches here and there on clay this year, it doesn’t matter because all the hard work you will put in this week, or if you win this match or not, or the hard work you do in practice will pay off when you come to Roland-Garros”, he said.

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